Housing boom boosts Persimmon past £1.8bn
The booming housing market gave a boost to Persimmon ahead of its annual general meeting today, with forward sales 35% ahead of the same time last year.
Britain's third biggest house builder said private sales per site for the first 15 weeks of the year are 25% up on 2013, while current total forward sales revenue stands at £1.87 billion.
The company has 7,200 homes sold forward into the private sale market, 38% up on the same point last year, while the average selling price of £200,400 is around 3% higher.
And visitor levels to Persimmon sites are up 10% on the previous year, with cancellation rates at a historic low of 14%.
Persimmon's figures were bolstered by the government's Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme, which has been used to support around 5,000 home sales since its introduction on April 1 last year.
In today's statement, Persimmon said: "The recently announced extension of Help to Buy from March 2016 to March 2020 provides welcome support to potential new home purchasers for this additional four year period."
Persimmon has around 395 active sites in the UK, including at Waterside View in Ellesmere, Booth's Farm in Great Barr, Smethwick, Coppice Grove in Telford and Akron Gate and Ettingshall Place in Wolverhampton.
Meanwhile another site at Meadow Grove in Newport is also set to come to fruition.
